I’m a big believer in Al Ries, and it is rare to see good examples of companies focusing in on one name for one product for one company for one consumer pain point.

37 Signals re-branding and restructuring to focus purely on Basecamp was a phenomenal example.

Moving forward, we will be a one product company. That product will be Basecamp. Our entire company will rally around Basecamp. With our whole team – from design to development to customer service to ops – focused on one thing, Basecamp will continue to get better in every direction and on every dimension.

When we meet people, and they ask us what we do, we say we work for 37signals. If they aren’t in the tech world, they’ll squint and say “what’s that?”. When we say “we’re the folks who make Basecamp”, their eyes light up and open wide. “Basecamp! Oh I love Basecamp! My wife uses Basecamp too! Even our church uses Basecamp!” We hear this kind of response over and over. People just love their Basecamp.

So that got us thinking… While 37signals is well known in tech circles, far more people around the world actually know us for Basecamp. And since we’re going to be completely focused on Basecamp moving forward, why don’t we just go all in on “Basecamp”.

So here’s the second big announcement: We’re changing our name. 37signals is now Basecamp. “37signals” goes into the history books. From now on, we are Basecamp. Basecamp the company, Basecamp the product. We’re one and the same.

Acquisition – The Welcome Email

The first thing you send someone after they make the potentially regrettable decision to give you their email address sets the tone for what they should expect. It’s also more likely to be opened than any emails you send thereafter. A study by Experian put the difference at a factor of 4-5x, and our own internal data review has shown a similar trend.

There are two extremely common mistakes that people make when crafting welcome emails:

Letting the opportunity go to waste. Writing the welcome email was just a checkmark on someone’s calendar one day, and no one has gone back since to make it better.

Focusing too heavily on downstream conversions. This new user is barely that. A few minutes ago, they were a “visitor.” This is the time to reaffirm the value they saw in you in the first place, not the time to cash in on it.